Imperial and Colonial Economies of Trauma, Travel, and Knowledge in Guatemala Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Freeman, Katherine E. Citation Freeman, Katherine E. (2020). Imperial and Colonial Economies of Trauma, Travel, and Knowledge in Guatemala (Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA). Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 06:03:02 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/650848 IMPERIAL AND COLONIAL ECONOMIES OF TRAUMA, TRAVEL, AND KNOWLEDGE IN GUATEMALA by Katherine E. Freeman ___________________________________ Copyright © Katherine E. Freeman 2020 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF GENDER AND WOMEN’S STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2020 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by: Katherine E. Freeman titled: Imperial and Colonial Economies of Trauma, Travel, and Knowledge in Guatemala and reCommend that it be aCCepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Oct 14, 2020 Monica Casper _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Oct 15, 2020 Linda B Green Eithne Luibheid _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Oct 14, 2020 Eithne Luibheid _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Oct 19, 2020 Susan Stryker Final approval and aCCeptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby Certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direCtion and reCommend that it be aCCepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. _________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________Oct 14, 2020 Monica Casper Gender and Women's Studies 2 Acknowledgements I thank, acknowledge, and honor all sacred things seen and unseen—my luminous ancestral guides, the guardian spirits who have watched over me my entire life, and the beautiful grace afforded me by divine intelligence and love—for bestowing upon me the ability to see the light, wonder, innocence, and perfection that fills every form and expression of living be-ing. I thank, acknowledge, and honor the Land currently known as the US Southwest in the imperial and colonial imaginary. This Land has nurtured me, supported me, sustained me, and gifted me with the beautiful and weighty responsibility of knowing there is always more to every encounter, experience, testimony, and witnessing than could ever meet the eye. I thank, acknowledge, and honor all of the Indigenous, Black, Latinx, trans*, queer, feminist, working-class, and other warriors risking their lives every single day in the service of imagining and creating a new world order. I thank, acknowledge, and honor my first mentor, Dr. Kathleen Fine-Dare, who threw me a lifeline when I was a young, angry, frightened, and queer riot grrl coming out of rural New Mexico. She exposed me to my first classes in cultural anthropology, women’s studies, and queer theory. She taught me that there was a whole world of womxn who were thinking, feeling, and writing about the sorts of things I had been thinking, feeling, and writing about, letting me know that I was never alone. I thank, acknowledge, and honor the chair of my dissertation committee, Dr. Monica Casper, for taking me on as her student, reading countless drafts of my work, meeting with me at a moment’s notice, and talking me through any and all moments of 3 paralyzing self-doubt and uncertainty. I do not have the words to thank her for her selfless dedication and hard work. I thank, acknowledge, and honor the esteemed members of my dissertation committee for likewise taking me on as their student and hanging in there with me through the ups and downs of my graduate school career. I thank Dr. Linda Green for always asking me the hard questions. I thank Dr. Eithne Luibhèid for the honest, thoughtful, and thorough feedback she has always provided me concerning my dissertation. I thank Dr. Susan Stryker for her willingness to discuss the nuances of critical social theory over a shared meal. I thank, acknowledge, and honor the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona. I deeply appreciate the support and assistance I received over the years from Darcy Román-Felix and Dr. Jennifer Croissant. I thank them both for their commitment to the department. I thank, acknowledge, and honor my life partner and best friend, Joseph D. Lowney. His loving support and care allowed me to write this dissertation and navigate this strange, incredible, scary, beautiful journey called “life.” 4 Dedication To my mom and dad, Sallyann and James Freeman, who are still the smartest people I know. 5 Table of Contents List of Figures .................................................................................................................... 9 Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 10 1 Chapter One: Investigating Leisure Travel and the Consolidation of World Power ..................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Research Biases: I am Not Detached, Objective, Apolitical, or Passive (I Want to Live) ....................................................................................................................... 15 1.2 Research Design, Methods, and Other Delusions of Epistemic Grandeur ............. 19 1.3 Key Terms and Concepts: Using Subjugated Knowledges to Rethink Leisure Travel ..................................................................................................................... 32 1.4 Dissertation Overview: Toward an Insurgent Understanding of Leisure Travel, World Power, and the Production of Knowledge .................................................. 57 2 Chapter Two: Leisure Travel, World Power, and Cartographies of Struggle in Guatemala ............................................................................................................. 64 2.1 Columbus Day, Colonial Wound-ings, and the Advent of Guatemala’s Tourism Sector ...................................................................................................................... 64 2.2 The Global Coloniality of Power and Latin America: An Overview .................... 70 2.3 Leisure Travel, Coloniality, and the Imperial Geopolitics of Knowledge in Guatemala ............................................................................................................... 92 2.4 Conclusion: The Invasion as an Enduring Geocultural Project and Matrix ......... 125 3 Chapter Three: Security Logics, Gender(ed) Violence, and the Recalibrated Civilizing Mission ............................................................................................... 130 3.1 Leisure Travel, Sexual Violence, and World Power ............................................ 130 6 3.2 Encountering the Global South, the Global North, and Antigua in the Imperial Imaginary ............................................................................................................. 136 3.3 Tourism Security Logics, Corporeal Moralities, and the Fomentation of Imperial Panics ................................................................................................................... 165 3.4 Turismo es Chingar: The Raced, Classed, and Gendered Prosthetics of Coloniality .............................................................................................................................. 184 3.5 Conclusion: The Recalibrated Civilizing Mission and the Geopolitics of Embodiment ......................................................................................................... 195 4 Chapter Four: The Political Economy of Trauma and the Geopolitics of Knowledge ........................................................................................................... 203 4.1 Introduction: Mundo Maya and the Crossroads of “New World” Power/Capital .............................................................................................................................. 203 4.2 Bridging Trauma Time and Hegemonic Time: The Colonial Wound and the Commodity ........................................................................................................... 207 4.3 Excavating Imperialist Desire: “Mundo Maya” and the Political Economy of Trauma ................................................................................................................. 218 4.4 Exploiting the Cannibalistic Drives of Empire: Fabricating the “Heart” of “Mundo Maya” ................................................................................................................... 249 4.5 Conclusion: Rethinking the Necrotic Organization of Planetary Life ................. 265 5 Chapter